


Squirrels And Bath Time

by Elemental_sorceress1



Series: Hello Dolly [4]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Dogs, Jogging, M/M, Mud
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-11
Updated: 2013-03-11
Packaged: 2017-12-05 00:53:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/716998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elemental_sorceress1/pseuds/Elemental_sorceress1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An early morning jog with Steve leads to a very messy Dolly</p>
            </blockquote>





	Squirrels And Bath Time

Dolly trotted after Steve as he jogged, sometimes stepping away from him to scare squirrels up into trees by barking and chasing them, only to return to following Steve right after. Steve stopped every time, letting the reddish brown dog have her fun. Clint had been happy to let Steve take her when he went jogging, he had an early meeting at SHIELD and had been worried Dolly would get lonely while he was away. 

Dolly's barking pulled him out of his thoughts, and he watched as she chased another band of defenseless squirrels up a tree, the little creatures chattered at the dog, sounding angry. Dolly returned to him a second later, head high and tail wagging, proud of herself.

"Must you scare the poor squirrels?" Steve asked, looking down at the dog, Dolly just tilted her head, before licking his hand. Steve sighed and petted her head, digging his fingers into the thicker fur at her neck and scratched. Dolly's tongue lolled out of her mouth; tail wagging side to side happily. "Come on, let’s finish our jog, Phil told me to have you back on time for your first vet trip” Steve said, continuing their jog. 

"Dolly!" Steve shouted ten minutes later when Dolly started to roll around in a big puddle of mud, Dolly just stood up, looking at him proudly. "Phil is going to kill me,” he muttered, grabbing Dolly's collar and hooking the matching leash to it. Dolly just followed him as he began jogging back towards the tower, hoping that he made it back in time for Dolly to get a bath before her appointment.

Unfortunately he didn’t, he made it back to the tower five minutes before Phil had to leave to take Dolly to the vet. Steve stepped into the elevator, silently cursing. Phil was not going to be happy, at all.

"Should I alert Mr. Coulson that you have returned?" JARVIS asked.

"Uh, yeah, tell him to call the vet and tell them Dolly'll will be late for her appointment, I'll explain when I get up there" Steve replied, looking at the ceiling.

"Very well sir" JARVIS said before it was quiet once again.

Steve took a deep breath before stepping out of the elevator, making sure to keep Dolly on the hard wood floors only. He does not need Tony whining about his carpet for a week, even after he's already replaced it, because he can’t just let Steve clean it. Phil stands from the couch where he's sitting and then just stares at the muddy dog beside him. Steve notices that his eyebrow twitches slightly, that is not good at all. That eyebrow twitch is all the warning you get before Phil starts yelling at you, in his own special Phil way of course. Phil doesn’t yell, his voice goes calm and quiet, and that's all the more terrifying. The first time Steve ever heard it was when Tony dropped Clint a week after they had gotten Dolly, luckily it was on padded mats, and Clint only sprained an ankle.

"What happened" Phil asked, taking a deep breath through his nose. 

"She rolled around in mud" Steve replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Give me her" Phil ordered holding his hand out for the leash Steve held in his grasp, Steve quietly handed him the leash, watching as Phil walked off, Dolly following.

Phil and Dolly reappeared twenty minutes later, Dolly freshly bathed with a new collar to replace the stained one she had been wearing. This one was blue with yellow bones all over it; the one Tony had bought that Clint hadn’t liked.

"Clint's going to hate the collar" Steve commented.

"Yes, well it's the only extra collar we have, I'll stop and get another on the way home" Phil said, whistling to gain Dolly's attention. "Come" he ordered, Dolly followed him into elevator.

XXX

Clint was back by the time Phil returned, him and Steve were sitting on the couch, Steve reading and Clint watching something on TV he couldn’t remember the name to. Dolly was what alerted them to the new arrivals, barking as soon as she ran into the room, heading straight for Clint.

"Hey girl how was the vet huh? Are you all healthy?" Clint asked, voice taking on the tone it usually did when talking to Dolly.

"She's fine, perfect weight, excellent health, good gums, and she has all her shots now" Phil answered.

"What happened to her collar? Why is she wearing this one?" Clint asked, staring at the collar.

"She decided to bathe in mud on the jog with Steve this morning" Phil answered, watching as Clint removed the collar, throwing it onto the coffee table.

"Where’s her collar?" Clint asked again.

"It was stained" Phil replied.

"Well she's not wearing that collar, it's for boy dogs" Clint stated. "She's a pretty little girl, aren’t you, yes you are, such a beautiful girl" Clint added, using baby talk once again.

"Here" Phil said, holding out the pet smart bag he held, Clint snatched it from him eagerly, smiling his thanks before digging through the bag. He pulled out a purple coller with fake gems all over it, smiling widely. He grabbed a switchblade from his back pocket, cutting through the plastic ties that held it to the cardboard before he clipped it around Dolly's neck. Grabbing the collar off the table in front of them and removing her tags, before placing them to the ring on her new collar.

"Now what else did daddy get you?" he asked, before going back to digging through the bag. He pulled out three bones, two bags of treats, a pack of tennis balls, a sock monkey, and last was a black doggie sweater with red lettering that said 'Black Widow' on the back of it, right above what looked like a red hour glass. Clint laughed at that, holding it up in front of him.

"Nat's going to love this" he said, before he began the task of putting it on Dolly, who just sat there, allowing him to grab her paws and put them in the holes before he snapped it closed under her belly. Once he was done he snapped several pictures on his phone, to send to Natasha.


End file.
